Former MTV boss praises The Osbournes' impact on reality TV in tribute to Ozzy Osbourne
Former MTV chief Van Toffler, who oversaw The Osbournes on the network, has reflected on the show's impact and Ozzy Osbourne's legacy.
The Osbournes boss Van Toffler says Ozzy Osbourne and his family brought a "wonderful, serendipitous chaos" to reality TV.
The former MTV boss helped launch the infamous reality show in 2002, years before the likes of Real Housewives or The Kardashians had fans hooked, and Toffler has reflected on the show's impact following the death of Ozzy on Tuesday (22.07.25) aged 76.
He told Variety: “We were deep in the throes of reality television in the early 2000s but I don’t think we’d ever had someone over 50 years old featured on any show on MTV in its history. “We were looking to launch Cribs, and we shot a bit with the Osbournes, and we all kind of looked at each other and just felt there is some wonderful, serendipitous chaos and insanity in this house that people would eat up.
"What a loving, dysfunctional, chaotic, musical family they were. And it just hit us to keep shooting, which went on for years.”
The TV executive was speaking to the outlet after the Black Sabbath frontman's death, and he sent his thoughts to his family.
He added: "I want to say I feel so sad and full of sorrow for Sharon and the kids, that is my immediate feeling.”
Toffler - who was with MTV for almost 30 years - pointed to how Ozzy's outrageous reputation was a perfect storm for the show.
He recalled: “It was so wrong, but unlike anything else that was on TV.
“First of all, that family — with the king of metal featured, and all the things he was allegedly accused of doing — but also the language!
"We had to bleep so much of the dialogue. That became such an integral part of it, the way we bleeped it, how often we bleeped it, and we weren’t making it up.”
Meanwhile, the show's success empowered MTV and reality TV as a whole to "follow our whims around subcultures", while showing their lives in a "different" situation than how they "became famous".
Toffler pondered: “I somehow believe the Kardashians would have found the limelight, Osbournes or no Osbournes."
He added: "[But] I think ‘The Osbournes’ opened the door for kind of exposes about people’s lives, kind of like what we did with Nick Lachey and Jessica Simpson (Newlyweds: Nick and Jessica).
"They both were pop stars, and then we documented their marriage. The Osbournes definitely opened the door for that kind of verite follow-doc series.”
